An out of control long blog....

After 11 days in-country, it was time to travel again for vacation, well kind of vacation.  First we’d travel to a homeschool conference, then vacate on the beach, and then to another set of meetings as well as medical appointments (just when you thought the shots were over...oh, no here they come again).  

On Saturday, I left my little town of third world country status and traveled to the capital city of our province were I had the pleasure of eating western food such as Mcdonald’s and KFC.  You don’t really enjoy those things until you move where they don’t have them.  That, coupled with the fact that as part of my team the first thirty days you have to be on a western food fast, the capital city was a nice break.  And basically I’m a lucky dog because my thirty day chinese food only diet, gets broken into two halves because we are traveling :)!!!  Yeah!  

Saturday we traveled and then Sunday we got up, read some of our favorite book, sang a little and rushed to the cafeteria...just like any other good B on a sunday.  After that it 

was another flight out of country to Tland’s capital and welcome back to western world.  At this point my head was spinning.  Eleven days in poverty, now back to what felt like a major city in the southern part of the states...say Miami.  Much more clean, fresh air, and basically anything you have in the states.  We ate supper at Outback Steakhouse...

weird boy weird.  Now a normal person’s stomach would get sick traveling into the 3rd world country and on their western food fast.  Not me!  No, no I get sick going back on the western food and the ten lbs that I’ve lost being on non-western food is looming right around the corner....ahhhh rats!   

So anyway after we traveled to Tland’s capital city for another one night stay....say goodbye and hop on another plane to our destination and homeschool conference.  Hey great news, I don’t have to step on a plane or travel for awhile now.  Yes, I get to stay here for a whopping five days!  Hope that you sense my sarcasm, but also my jest!  

So now I’ve cau

ght you up to today.  Today is my day off...yes in all this traveling and absolutely doing nothing, I get a day off.  No complaints here.  I slept in this morning until about eight-thirty and decided to get up and make some plans for the day.  I still hadn’t found a curling iron at this point so the sopping wet hair goes into a frumpy, yes frumpy bun and off to

 free breakfast.  Oh, by the way the city that i permanently live in, or I am supposed to permanently live in LOL was about 34 de

grees when I left with no heat and now I’m in a sunny tropical climate of about 80 degrees.  Rough life!!  So anyway where was I....oh ya so it’s too hot (no AC) to dry my hair so I’m officially M looking all frumpy, but it’s warm and I’ve got on flip-flops.  

This is probably the first day I’ve been completely on my own and I”m in a country that I speak absolutely no language, but I’m not staying inside today...no way!  Our hotel is connected to a mall, but nothing opens until 10 AM...so I stopped by a Star-bucks (they spoke English!!!) and decided to go for a little stroll through the warm beautiful streets.  I had one mission and one mission only ....find a curling iron!  I had walked for about 10-15 minutes when I spotted a shop that said, “Hair Spot”, it looked like a good place to inquire about a curling iron and maybe since the sign was in English they would speak english.  Service is everything in Asia so I was quickly greeted and I think I was asked in their language what I wanted done, but honestly I have no clue what the girl was asking me.  She was friendly though.  Whelp with no language and her speaking no english it was going to be sign language.  I motioned to my hair 

and curled it around my finger and she said ok and nodded her head yes.  Success!!!  She took me over to one side and began to show me product after product that would curl my hair...well not exactly success on the first try.  I said, “no” and motioned again to my hair saying, “iron” and using my hands to act like I was using a curling iron.  “Oh” she said and babbled something her friend.  Then she motioned me to sit down...”no, no, I don’t want you to curl m

y hair” (Lord only knows what kind of curl or perm I would have ended up with if I would have sat in that chair).  “I want to take with me...buy.”  I motioned once again with my hands taking something with me.  “Okay, okay” she said as she pulled a curling iron out of a drawer and pointed to it.  Third times a charm.  After a few more minutes of sign language, a tourist map, and a phone call.  Girlfriend had me in a taxi-truck thing telling the driver where to take me.  She bowed and waved as I said thank you in her language and just smiled like it was her honor to help this blonde headed foreigner find something to fix her hair.  

A ten minute ride in this little trucknee thing with my driver smiling took me to a hair supply store.  Kind of like a Sally’s in the states.  Unbeknownst to me the driver had been instructed to wait and then return me to wherever I wanted to go.  Usually these drivers have a truck full of people and make many stops...kind of like a mini bus.  I came out of the hair store, curling iron in hand a very happy girl and the driver was still there.  He motioned for me to get back in and asked in broken english, “where else”?  “Well do you know a music store...guitar?” ( I played the air guitar for him) ‘Yes..ok” and we were off again.  Twenty minutes and three stores later I realized that I had somehow ended up with a personal chauffeur that was instructed to wait on me hand and foot.  Remind me to go back and thank the hair girl!!!  I finally told him I wanted to stay here for a while and that he could go, I’d walk.  Then the dreaded question...”how much?”  Heaven only knows how mu

ch he’s gonna charge me for this...only hauling one person around.  “Forty-five” he said.  Wow!  Only forty five bott!  I gladly paid the man and went on shopping!  Which I did and did well.  

So basically to sum up my day, I got my curling iron, had a nice little tour of the city in a trucknee thingy for about $1.36 in American money, oh and had a glorious ham & cheese sandwich with an ice cold coke.  It’s warm and beautiful here and everything is surrounded by this neat little moat of water.  Eleven days of cold and work isn’t bad in exchange for the next three weeks of warmth and chartered public transportation...LOL.  Having fun and the time of my life....truly blessed I am!!!  

Having fun (thanks for the popcorn Hannah 

P.), 

Whit